A visually impaired person walks mostly with a stick or with the support of a guide dog, and is guided with Braille blocks installed on a road when he/she walks.
A guide dog may not be trusted 100% for any unexpected circumstances even if the dog is well trained. Also, even if the Braille blocks are installed, the visually impaired person may feel difficult and walk slow following the Braille blocks.
If the visually impaired person approaches a roadway by mistake, accident may occur due to a passing vehicle.
A guard rail should be installed between a sidewalk and a road to prevent the visually impaired person from approaching the road, but there are many issues in installing the guard rail in cities and many difficulties are associated with the guard rail, and thus the guard rail is not installed usually.
Also, there may be trash bins or other installations in the boundary between the roadway and the road, the visually impaired person may feel difficult while walking.
Accordingly, it is essential to inform the visually impaired person of the information on such installations.
To help the visually impaired person walk without difficulty, a stick with a built-in RFID reader has been developed to read an RFID tag installed within Braille blocks and guide the condition and information of a road.
However, the RFID tag is slow in response time and thus the visually impaired person should frequently stop walking, and the existing Braille blocks are not utilized well. The Braille blocks are the most fundamental means for guiding the visually impaired person and may guide the visually impaired person when the RFID tag or receiver has a problem. However, it is difficult for the visually impaired person to walk only with the sense of the sole of the foot. That is, if the visually impaired person wears shoes with a thick sole, he/she may not sense the Braille of the Braille blocks.
Also, as vehicles should pass by a pedestrian crossing, it is difficult to install the Braille blocks on the pedestrian crossing.